by Nancy Thompson
Texans love their public schools. Not having public schools was listed as one of the grievances against Mexico in 1836. Texas Republicans have been in charge of public education since 1995, when George W. Bush was Governor of Texas. Special Session #3 to discuss School Choice starts on October 9th. Schools and teachers still have not received funding for public education from this legislative session.
You may know the term School Choice by many of its other names, Education Freedom, Parental Rights, or Education Savings Accounts. These names are code for Vouchers. Gov. Abbott wants to give private school students $8,000 per student and public school students $6,100. Why should Private schools get more public funding with our Tax than public education students? Especially since Texas needs to invest $40 billion just to reach the national average in public education spending. Texas currently ranks 43rd out of 50 US States in Education.
Did you know:
–Public schools are often the largest employers in rural towns and cities across Texas.
–Private schools have no accountability to prove how they spent taxpayer money or that they gave their students a quality education.
–Private schools do not have to accept all students. They can be selective based on academic performance, behavior, or even religious beliefs.
–Special needs students will not be protected by IDEA in private schools.
–Over time communities will have to pay more to overcome the loss of money going to private schools.
–Wealthy parents who already have their kids enrolled in private schools will benefit from vouchers, but not the poor or the special needs students.
If vouchers were really good for public school kids, then Gov. Abbott wouldn’t have spent months touring private Christian schools on his voucher road tour. Contact your legislator and tell them to Vote No on Vouchers.
